They have been sensitised against making unfounded claims of treating certain diseases.

Concerned about recurrent unchecked claims in the media about their ability to treat certain diseases, the authorities in Equatorial Guinea earlier this week met with traditional healers and owners of local medicine stores to seek their support in sensitising the public on how to avoid being contaminated by infected Ebola patients.

According to the Information and Press Office of Equatorial Guinea, the Director General in the Cabinet of the Minister of Health, who is also Director of Ethno-medicine, Alberto Esimi Abeque, on August 18, 2014, met with the herbalists in Bata to brief them on how to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus.

He reminded the healers that some of their drugs were not the most appropriate for the diseases they claimed to cure; thus they should stop publicising such herbal remedies. He advised the ethno-medicine practitioners to take advantage of their familiarity with the public to pass on information on Ebola prevention they just received.

According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, Equatorial Guinea has legislative/regulatory texts governing the practice of traditional medicine. There is a licensing process and a registry of traditional health practitioners. However, the country does not have procedures for the official approval of traditional medical practices or remedies.

Traditional medicine practitioners are not involved in primary health care programmes, but there are training facilities and programmes in traditional medicine for both health care providers and lay people. An attempt has been made to standardise the fees of traditional medicine practitioners, although no patient reimbursement exists for such fees, the WHO explains.